Rolex fetes arts mentorships

Zhang Yimou partnered with Annemarie Jacir

The Mentor & Protege Arts Initiative celebrates the end of its 2010-11 mentorships, which partnered such bizzers as Zhang Yimou, Peter Sellars and Brian Eno with newbies, today at Lincoln Center.

The Rolex philanthropic effort partners mentors with aspiring artists in six fields: dance, literature, film, music, visual arts and theater. Helmer Annemarie Jacir was chosen to work with Zhang.

Zhang invited Jacir on the Beijing set of his epic “The Flowers of War,” starring Christian Bale. Jacir edited some of the movie’s English-language scenes.

“Even with the language barrier, they found that they had a lot in common,” said Rolex director of philanthropy Rebecca Irvin, who helped to establish the biennial program in June 2002.

Other mentors this year were legit director Sellars, musician Eno and author Hans Magnus Enzensberger. Past mentors include Martin Scorsese, who invited Celina Murga on set and into the editing room for “Shutter Island.”

“For someone like Martin Scorsese, they’re not doing it for the ($50,000 honorarium),” she said. “They’re doing it because they believe in the project.”